Such a beautiful, haunting melody! Thank you for sharing this. It’s a great piece! I want to get that music for a couple of my students. Meanwhile, WOW. I loved your expressive playing. I think your rubato was just right! I swear, I was nodding at every stage of this performance. Just as I was thinking, “oh wouldn’t it be nice to add a little ornamentation on this repeat”, you did that! It made the second time around interesting, where a simple, straight repeat would have typically lost the interest of your listeners. Such a nice job!

May I suggest something completely off topic, regarding your vibrato? It’s already so good. But the base of the first finger of your left hand is stuck against the neck of the violin. The result is a vibrato that is inhibited. So, the objective is to be able to continue touching there but, as the hand waves toward your nose and away from your nose, the base of the first finger ‘rubs’ against the neck, moving forward and back with the rest of your hand.

This is impossible to do, really, unless you hold the violin with your head only. Start by placing the violin on your shoulder and see if you can actually let go by dropping the left hand. If not, you’ll need to consider some solutions to help you do this. Maybe a shoulder rest or positional adjustment. If you want to submit another video, showing me how you hold your violin, say from the chin down at least (no worries! show all of you as you couldn’t be more self conscious than me!), I will gladly further advise you on that issue.

After that’s all clear, practice some sirens. Place the first finger on any string. Now slide up toward your nose as far as you can go! Try without the bow, then with the bow. Go up and down. Drive your pets and family and friends crazy. It’s the most fun! Once sirens are easy with first finger, try them with other fingers!

Here’s a summary: Hold the violin with head only, then sirens with all fingers, on all strings. Your vibrato is already excellent, but it is tight because of this one little detail. Great work!